Gorge View Cottage  - beautiful eco-cottage in Cheddar
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The Golden Age of Steam

26/3/2017

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Picture
If you're expecting some reference to fossil-fuel-burning soot-belching locomotives, or 4-6-2 wheel configurations, or heritage railway lines, the sorry but this article is not for you. That's not to say I am not an enthusiast for this old and wonderful way of travel despite its less than great eco credentials.

No. This article is about the rise of steam cleaning. For the cottage we have always used eco products, including EM (effective microorganism) cleaners. But of course better still is to use no products at all. And that is possible using steam cleaning. A pretty old technology brought up to date, and for some years now it is something we use on every turn-around of the cottage. It not only sanitises using the heat of the steam, but also loosens dirt for easy mopping up with a micro-fibre cloth.

Whilst no chemicals are involved, it does of course use energy to heat, and then keep hot, the pressurised water container. Given that we clean during the day when no other power is being used in the cottage, the steam cleaner is pretty much fully powered by our solar panels if sunny. If not sunny then the PV contributes and our green import electricity does the rest. And we're not talking much electricity anyway for a hour or so's use.
 
We use our Karcher Steam Cleaner (pictured) to clean the oak floors, the bathroom (floor, wall tiles, grout, glass and ceramics), and the kitchen area including if needed the oven. We still use eco-products on kitchen and other surfaces, and the toilet, but steam is king otherwise. We also see that this has over the years helped enormously with maintaining the condition of the wood floors and tiles - for example almost no little black mould forming on grout and sealant in the bathroom.

So we're converts and are very happy to strongly recommend this way of eco-cleaning.

Toot, toot.

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GetGrowing at Gorge View Cottage

9/3/2017

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We are delighted that Gorge View house and Gorge View Cottage, and our garden, will be hosting the GetGrowing course this April. GetGrowing is a hands-on course that teaches how to grow your own, healthy food easily and successfully in whatever space you have available – be it a piece of land, garden, paved yard or balcony.
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The popular course concentrates on the most useful methods to start an organic vegetable garden from scratch, how to sow and plant, care for, feed and protect vegetable plants in harmony with nature. At the same time it provides the basic insight and understanding for raising healthy and vigorous plants year after year. Topics include garden design, crop rotation, beds and container systems, feeding your soil, composting, natural pest control and much more.
The teaching is accompanied by a 100-pages, fully coloured, step by step manual to serve as a reference guide and to refresh and deepen what you have learned during the course. 

Taking place from Friday evening 21st April through to Sunday early evening on Sunday 23rd April 2017, the course is taught free-of-charge but if you want to take the manual away that has a small charge, and food and refreshments provided also incur a modest cost. There will be limited residential accommodation at Gorge View, again for a modest charge, or people can stay locally at other self-catering or B&B accommodation, including the near-by Cheddar YHA.

The GetGrowing project was developed in 2010 by non-professional volunteers in Ireland in the spirit of service to society with the aim to help people to be more self-reliant and to be able to grow at least part of their food. It has since spread to many different countries. The course is meant for beginners or improvers but is also suitable for people who already have knowledge and experience and wish to pass it on by becoming a teacher themselves.

If you are interested and would like to learn more, then do please get in touch.

The course is an initiative of the international humanitarian dan environmental charity "Embracing the World", more detail  about which can be found on it's website here.
The images above are from the 2016 GetGrowing UK course at the Redfield Centre, Bucks.
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    Gorge View Cottage Diary

    Gorge View Cottage is a characterful and environmentally renovated  self-catering  cottage, with stunning views

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